Spanish dubs

[RockItShipper]

Over the weekend I was in the Dominician Republic and caught some shows on CNLatin America and fox Kids.

First off, I should mention the Speedy Gonzalez short. The text in the backgrounds, like all the dubs I saw there, was unchanged. But they'd be spoken out loud in Spanish.

I also caught bits of Johnny Bravo and PPG. Johnny didn't sound very Elvis-y but the voices weren't that far off... Him sounded identical to the original VA.

Didn't have enough sense of the Simpsons to get a real perspective on what I saw of it. Wasn't horrible though.

Saw most of the first Curare episode on what's dubbed as "Batman of the Future" there. Didn't seem like any less than a direct translation from what little Spanish I know, but some parts- like Babs and Terry in the diner- were easier to understand. Bruce's voice was really creepy.

Five minutes of the Flintstones. No b/g changes which made it seem odd that Frederick Flintstone was written when the character's called Pedro. Barney's called Pablo and the wives' names are the same. My sister thought it wasn't dubbed because the mouth movements fit. I explained the high animation quality of H-B toons and how dialogue is sometimes altered to match mouth movements. She said that was stupid and flipped the channel to a subbed presentation of "Eyes Wide Shut".

Not sure what it's called, but I caught the start of this "Magical Pig Girl" anime. The heroine looked like a redhead version of Sailor Jupiter. And one of her friends looked like a green-haired, glasses-wearing Sailor Mercury. I'm guessing it's Sailor Moon meets Ranma 1/2's Hibiki Ryoga.

Caught previews for Digimon 2.0 and the Johto Pokemon series. It looks as if the original theme animation is being kept intact for Digimon, as I saw shots not cut and paste into the US theme. CNLA used 2BA master singles as Pokepromos... Fox Kids Network had a Insommnia block that included the Adam West Batman show.

[DR. BELCH]

Originally posted by RockItShipper :
First off, I should mention the Speedy Gonzalez short. The text in the backgrounds, like all the dubs I saw there, was unchanged. But they'd be spoken out loud in Spanish.

They do that on the American CN as well--the v/o guy reads text on signs, boxes, billboards, letters, etc. It's rather annoying if there's dialogue in the same scene and the voices overlap and get muddled, though on a Barney Bear cartoon which has little dialogue es bien. I used to watch CN in Spanish all the time by setting the ALTERNATE AUDIO button on my cable box...it really irked my brothers because they can't speak Spanish. Sometimes I'd translate for them (though it's
hard to translate the previous line and listen to the next one). On occassion I'd have fun with them, like swearing while I translated and then just saying, "Well, it's a rough translation; they probably said 'darn' or 'crap' or something."
BTW, they show Speedy over there? If they can show his cartoons in a Spanish-speaking country and no one complains, then what's the beef with showing them here?
Plus I was watching The Flintstones last night (Tue Jun 26), and my mom and I noticed the same thing you did--the voices are dubbed all high and really weird (esp. Barney, who is way too nasal), and they're called Pedro and Pablo (Peter Flinstone and Paul Rubble?). Why I don't know; Fred is easily translated to Federico and Barney is short for Bernard, or Bernardo. Also, not all the CN shows are dubbed here in the States; Johnny Bravo and Dexter's Laboratory (the dub actor for Dexter sounds so constipated I can't tell if it's a man or woman!) are, but The Power Puff Girls aren't. About half the cartoons on The Acme Hour are undubbed as well, plus they lapse into English if a character sings, so that's even more trippy-sounding.

My sister...said [The Flintstones] was stupid and flipped the channel to a subbed presentation of "Eyes Wide Shut".

Funny thing you should mention EWS. I just watched a documentary this morning on the career of Stanley Kubrick. When the final word of the final movie he ever made before he died is the F word, you know he's a cinematic god.

Spoiler:

My brother didn't get the movie. He griped the plot was stupid. I explained that it was all about a man's journey into carnal madness sparked by his wife's irrational jealousy and confession that she's flirted with the idea of infidelity. He complained the music hurt his ears. I told him that stark piercing piano note illustrated the one compulsive thought that constantly haunted him--as long as his wife suspected him, why not give in to desire with his patient's daughter, or the prostitute, or one of those masked women at the mansion? But when it got to the scene with the orgy, he nearly drowned in his own drool.